stugs assembled

The four stugs are assembled and one of the Panzer IIIN. I finished all of this before the weekend. The lower hulls of the stugs I have started painting already, I will finish all the lower hulls before I attach the skirt armour.

During the weekend I have been working on some other things;

adding zimmeritt to a die cast P anther and modifying some 20mm metal figs.

More pictures probably tomorrow.

Progress

I have some stuff coming to me very soon from America, (which are a swop/trade thing) and 5 diecasts from a friend in Portugal (which I have to pay for)

Also got a couple more swops lined up for Deagostini diecasts which I don't want in exchange for useful ones that I do.

Yes, the Madness has definitely started again.

About the photos above:

I have been messing around with a stack of Panzer III and Stug kits. I need 4 stugs and 2 Pzr III ausf N, the ones with the short 75mm gun. I have bought all the relevant Italeri kits. But then I saw a way to improve the Altaya diecasts (I have 5 ) at the same time.

By using the lower hulls and suspensions from HAT and Italeri Pzr III fast-build kits (which are very cheap , and I have a load already unused) and mating these with the Italeri hull tops, I kill two birds with one stone.

1) the Stugs and IIINs will go together very quickly

2) the suspensions are hidden by skirt armour anyway

3) I then can use the plastic link-and-length track from the kits to replace the weak tracks on the Altayas.

The rubber tracks on the Altaya/Deagostini diecasts are the only weak point on an otherwise good model. They are very thin and I think will not last long. By replacing with link and length track it will make a very solid wargames model.

First off though is to build all the plastic kits . I have started 4 and made good progress. The different kits all scale together very well and there seems to be no trouble cross-kitting.

Ma Wee Beastie

I am celebrating. This is the first thing I have finished since I can't remember when. it is an old diecast fire engine I found in a charity shop. I thought it would look good as a tractor for a BEF 2 pdr AT gun. Gun is Skytrex. All fire engine parts were removed or disguised with stowage. I built the dodgy ammunition locker on the back from plastic card, this is hiding all the pump controls. Scratchbuilt the towing attachment too. Stowage is all Skytrex except the haversacks which are Valiant. 4 of the crew are Raventhorpe from the universal range with British heads. The other two are Fantassin late war British, with weapons and haversacks cut away, and Raventhorpe head swops. You may notice one of the crew is wearing the pre war service dress and puttees. I thought why not?All the gas mask cases were scratchbuilt with milliput because I could not find my Greenstuff.The gun is on a separate base, that way if I want I can have the vehicle towing an 18/25pdr and limber. (a future project) I will have another base with the AT gun deployed and crew around it, that is my usual practice. Oh bases are not finished I need to add sand, scatter etc.

OOB for German Recce bns

One advantage of me buying diecasts and models again is that I almost have all the stuff I need to finish off some wargames units I was planning.
Reconnaissance units can be very important in WWII wargames especially in encounter type scenarios. So I planned to paint up TWO complete battalions for the German side. One is late war, one is early war .

I am putting the OOBs up here for reference. By the way these are WARGAMING OOBs tailored for the ruleset that I play; they are an APPROXIMATION of true OOBs, open to interpretation so nobody should get their knickers in a twist.


LATE WAR 1944

Bn HQ: Heavy staff car


HQ COY:
signal pl: sdkfz 251/3 half track
supply pl: Opel Blitz truck

HEAVY ARMOURED CAR COY:
coy HQ: sdkfz 234/3 (75mm howitzer)
4 pl each: 1 sdkfz 234 Puma

1st RECCE COY (half tracks):
coy HQ: sdkfz250/3
3 pl each: 1 sdkfz 250
heavy pl: 250/7 80mm mortar
support pl: 250/8 75mm howitzer

2nd RECCE COY (kubelwagens)
coy HQ: radio kubel
3 pl each: 1 kubel
MG pl: 1 kubel


Optional: I am not sure that there should not be a Heavy Company with towed AT, Engineer and possibly, by this stage of the war, light AA pl.
I need to investigate this further but the original internet sources I made this OOB from have gone down.

EARLY WAR 1939-41 (Blitzkreig era)

Note: I took liberties with the number of a/cars, there should be TWO a/car coys but because of the cost of the a/car models I have only one of these and TWO m/c coys instead.

Bn HQ: sdkfz 261

signal pl: hvy field car (radio)

supply pl: Opel Blitz truck

ARMOURED CAR COY:

coy HQ: sdkfz 221 or 223

4 pl each: 1 sdkfz 222

heavy pl: sdkfz 232 (6 rad)

M/C COY:

coy HQ: Kubel (radio)

3pl each 1 m/c combi

2nd M/C COY:

as above.

HEAVY COY:

coy HQ: field car

at gun pl: PAK 36 and towing vehicle (seperate gun model for deployed AT gun)

cannon pl: IG 18 and towing vehicle (seperate gun model for deployed Infantry gun)

engineer pl: light truck or heavy field car. Seperate base for engineers when deployed, or boat model)

More Pics 3

Yet another. Need another helmet for this one which I don't have at the moment. Again a new shield. The new thing on this one was that I had to carve off the furry leggings to look like hose. Once painted this will give her a completely different look.

More Pics 2

On this one I filed off the shield and top of head, substituted a large heater shield and a kettle hat. I need to add a little hair detail with green stuff at the back.

Project Madonna: More Pics

OK here are comparison photos of a Shadowforge Viking lady and my conversion. The short boots were already OK so this was an easy conversion of a new shield, filing the head and adding a deep sallet. She is my favourite already.